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| Pentecost people | ||
DEAR EDITOR: Thanks to “Catholic Charismatic” for asking in your newspaper of Jan 30, the question, “Has our Church gone Pentecostal?” The question appears to stem from a misunderstanding of Pentecost and what it means to be Catholic and charismatic. Our Church has its origins in Pentecostal events and to support this, I shall attempt to paraphrase the occasions that Fr Ozele cited in his talk on “A New Pentecost”: • After the annunciation of our Lord and Saviour's marvellous conception, Lk1:39ff, Mary went to serve her aged cousin Elizabeth who, when Spirit met Spirit, “ gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb ..'” and the child in her “ womb leapt for joy ”. And Mary said, “ My soul proclaims…and my spirit rejoices. .”. What joyful expressions! • Acts 2:1ff, “… when suddenly from heaven a violent wind… ” and tongues as of fire caused the disciples gathered to speak different languages and 3000 were converted, yet some “mockingly” said they were “ full of new wine ”. • Acts 8:5ff, Philip, a deacon, went to Samaria after the persecution and death of Stephen, he proclaimed Christ, laid hands on the people and they were cured. A magician wanted to buy that power. The Holy Spirit could change one's position. • Acts 9:3ff, Saul who supervised the stoning of Stephen, was on the way to Damascus when “ suddenly there came a light from heaven ”; he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying “… why are you persecuting me?” Then, Paul almost single-handedly spread Christianity throughout the known world at that time. • Acts 10 - while Peter was still speaking at the Roman centurion Cornelius' home, the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners and they glorified God, (Jews and Gentiles – and I add Catholic or Pentecostal, God has no favourites – only fear him and do right,). • Acts19: 1-6 at “the moment Paul had laid hands” on the 12 baptised by John, “ the Holy Spirit came down on them and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy ”. I agree with Fr Ozele, some of us today would put out our “tongue of fire”. Some would “kill” (by not believing and saying this is craziness), the spirit of joy, intimacy, glorifying, praising and service of neighbour which Father pointed out accompanied all of the above Pentecostal experiences and even those of today. Do we have to be of the Pentecostal “religion” to leap for joy, preach the Good News to the ends of the earth, glorify God by corporal works to the least of our brothers and sisters, lay hands on the sick, pray and expect them to recover, prophesy or build up the Body of Christ when the Holy Spirit comes? As can be seen from the above examples all of us are Pentecost people! The Spirit blows where He wills. He acts outside of the status quo and gives gifts to each of us for different functions in His One Body. Each person should therefore, join with other spirit-filled persons to pray and ask the Father in Jesus' mighty name to give us a new Pentecost every day to propel us into joy and service for the sake of His kingdom here on earth. Regarding the other concerns: As we know, the word catholic means universal and universal truths will always prevail. Moreover, mother Church will always have room for all her children-charismatic (open and expressive), cloistered (closed and quiet), Marian, monastic etc. Space does not permit details but the conference tapes available from Eternal Light Community would clarify any concerns about the humble, spirit-filled (Pentecostal?) man of God Fr Anthony Ozele and likewise true Catholic charismatics, whose allegiance to our Church and archbishop is undoubted. Maybe we should continue to write on this wonderful topic of Pentecost. Our nation needs the Holy Spirit to reign in each person's heart and maybe we should request the reinstatement of the feast as a public holiday as a sign that we truly love and honour our former and latter Pentecostal roots. Laura Lacaille, Maloney |
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| My reflection on Carnival | ||
DEAR EDITOR: Carnival in T&T was a good experience for me. I got to see some of the beautiful and colourful costumes during the traditional mas on Friday afternoon and the big party in the street during Carnival Tuesday. It was fun, people were really partying, dancing and liming. I realised that Trinidadians are really party people, if they hear soca music they just dance and jump. I also enjoyed the pan Saturday night in the Savannah . Carnival is really all about calypso, mas and the steel drum, street parties…etc… Well I had fun, but I was surprised at how other people behave during Carnival, and it disturbed me a lot. I was thinking and reflecting why I felt that way, maybe because I was not accustomed to it, or maybe God was trying to tell me something about it. And He did actually. He let me realise something. I was asking some people (most of them youths) why do people dance and behave like that; why are we tolerating unchristian behaviour during Carnival? And they gave the same reasons – “ Well, that's our culture!....it's normal! ” I know some of us don't see bad things in carnival, we always thought this is our culture. But we need to be careful, I remember what the bible said, “ Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out…unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best of you, develops well-formed maturity in you ..” (Romans 12:2). We must make a counter-culture decision to focus on becoming like Jesus. Time for us build Christ's culture. The true essence of Carnival is really wonderful, but other people are making it ugly. Carnival is all about Trinidad & Tobago, it's all about unity, liberation, freedom, celebration etc…but actually we are not experiencing these things any more. But I believe the vulgar behaviour that we see in Carnival is not part of our culture. I don't condemn Carnival, I know Carnival is the soul of Trinidad , but as Christians I think we should do something about Carnival, we can't tolerate these things any more. We should make radical changes in Carnival, we don't have to go away, but we have to face the reality of what's going on in Carnival. Time for us to bring Christ in Carnival, this is the most radical thing we can do. Satan is very strategic or creative right now, he knows young people today like fetes and parties, so he's penetrating into it. He's like riding in a Ferrari or BMW right now, but we Christians are still riding an old model Volkswagen, (we prefer BMW or Ferrari than Volkswagen right? Volkswagen is boring!) That's why people today, especially the young people rather go to parties or bars than going to some Christian or religious activities. But it's time for Christians to ride with Mercedes, BMWs, Jaguar or Ferrari too, we can bring Christ in fetes and big parties too. Parties which are clean and fun, where people can just jump and dance, no drinking alcohols and etc… (Just like what we did during our CFC lime in St Augustine ). We can have street parties too. We can incorporate Christian activities with these kind of activities. Last night (Feb 9), we talked about forming a Christian band for Carnival. I know it's a crazy idea, but I think this is the most radical way of bringing Christ in Carnival, time for us to stand up and be counted. I know it's hard to do this, but if God is our reason for doing these things, who can be against us? As Christians we have to build God's Kingdom here on earth. Since Carnival is part of every Trinidadian, let's bring Christ in Carnival. Maybe someday, aside from having panorama, fetes, mas, etc…, maybe we can also have “Gawad Kalinga build”(CFCs work with the poor programme) during carnival season, where we build houses for the poor, instead of spending our money for expensive carnival costumes or fireworks, etc...We rather give it to the poor. This is what liberation means, we are liberating the poor people from natural and spiritual poverty. Through this we can become more UNITED, poor or rich, blacks or whites, mixed races celebrating together. We know this is too far from reality, I know I'm too idealistic, but we have to live with the ideals of Christ, who knows? God is the God of the impossible…He can make these things happen. And if all these things happen, Carnival will be more peaceful and amazing. May God bless us all! Jonathan Lumamba, |
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| Don't forget Ms Ramdeen's good work |
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DEAR EDITOR: Please allow me to say a few words in the Catholic press concerning all that has transpired since Leela Ramdeen 's recent statements on the controversial issue involving the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister. Ms Ramdeen's misjudgement in this matter has had inevitable, regrettable and painful fallout, but it would be a terrible mistake if we allow the tremendous good that she has done as chair of the Social Justice Commission to be interred, as is implied by the very bitter verbal attacks made against her. Indeed, this incident reminds us that in each one, without exception, “the butterfly wings of my self still have caterpillar feet.” There are people who are beacons in our society and Church and Ms Ramdeen is one such person. Such persons bear witness to the good news that God dwells with us and loves us, and that we are meant to be his word of hope and freedom to the world. They present us with the imperatives of the gospel, the liturgy and the sacraments that are core to our discipleship, though we might yet be unfamiliar with them. They challenge us to examine whether our lives are a blessing cup, a source of blessing for those in need and they instil in us a hunger for justice and truth. As chair of CCSJ, Ms Ramdeen has been passionate in service and devotion and in promulgating kingdom values. On many occasions, when others remained silent, she has thoughtfully, substantially and courageously addressed important social issues - crime, literacy, reverence for life, the Caroni land issue, poverty. While our humanity reminds us that failure and success often live in the same house, our journey of faith in the Risen Jesus means that we live out of the belief that where weakness or brokenness exist, life-giving, transforming grace more than abounds! Mary Lochan |
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| Lent and the media | ||
DEAR EDITOR: It will be remiss of me if I did not write to commend Trinity Communication Network (Ch 10) for its very effective and “faithful to the end” programming of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Christopher Laird, the CEO of Gayelle (Ch 7) deserves praise also for treating viewers to the past concerts of Love Movement, Marionettes, etc which were to see our softer and more cultured side. I sensed from the mood of some of the popular media houses that it raised the consciousness about Advent and contributed to the prevention of the “tsunami” of the short Carnival season from rushing in to devastate the Advent and Christmas schedule. God was given His due and He gave back by blessing the nation with the most successful pre-Lenten festival I have ever seen despite the short season. God is great! It is hoped that this season of Lent will also enjoy some measure of respect in the media. The excesses and increasing lack of creativity in the adult Carnival is, I believe, as a result of our ungenerated selves and unreflected lives and indicates a need for repentance so as to restore the creator's life to our souls and spirits. This will translate to a renewal of the Carnival because “i t is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer ” (Jn 6:63). Those with the devious agenda to desecrate and pervert the Lenten season by showing and airing Carnival and other vain material in order to keep their audience thirsting for the devil, the world and the flesh (enemies of the soul) need to understand that God is “ pure with the one who is pure but crafty with the devious .” (Ps 18:26) God bless. Camilla Mee Chong, Glencoe |
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FROM THE EDITORS | |
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NOTICE | |
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